While clearing out my office recently, I stumbled on an old copy of this magazine. About seven years ago, I wrote my first feature for Psychologies, on the value of taking a duvet day from life. Life was something of a whirlwind – my children were three, ten and 12 years old, and I was juggling the demands of full-time parenthood with building a writing career. Suddenly overwhelmed by chaos, I felt compelled to go AWOL from my life for a day.
It was an impulsive coping mechanism – the domestic equivalent of reaching for the emergency pull cord – but it later evolved into a regular self-care routine. I wrote: ‘Elbow-deep in dirty dishes and battered by the noise of squabbling siblings, I wanted to walk out and leave everything that clamoured for my attention to someone else. So I did. But, what began as a desperate, one-off
